Question

Why and how does Big Data matter to Accounting?

Answer 1

• The data scientist role leverages big data and analytics and can directly reduce the advisory capacity of accountants.
• Big data is being leveraged to advance executive decision-making.
• It is only a matter of time before a new accounting paradigm emerges in the form of big data accounting.

• As Apple hurtles towards a US$1 trillion turnover and Airbnb breaks free of the shackles of the industrial revolution, the data scientist has emerged as the sexiest job of the century, according to the Harvard Business Review.

  The data scientist role leverages big data and analytics. It has the potential to directly reduce the advisory capacity of accountants or financial specialists, diminishing the competitive advantage of accountants over other professionals through the abdication of responsibility for the big data that drives organisations.